Some details of Teleka Patrick's disappearance may forever remain a mystery

KALAMAZOO, MI — While some details surrounding the disappearance of Teleka Patrick may never be known, it's clear that on the night of Dec. 5 the Kalamazoo doctor was wrestling with demons, authorities say.

But with forensic evidence showing no signs of trauma to the body or foul play, authorities may never know how or why Patrick ended up in a small lake in Porter Ind., after her car went into a ditch along I-94, Fuller said.

"It looks like she left Kalamazoo, drove straight to this location, became lost at that point and was found ... five months to the day at that same location, with no indications of possible trauma, no indications of anything other than a possible accidental drowning," Fuller said.

During the news conference, Fuller painted a picture of an attractive, highly intelligent woman who told people she chose to move to Kalamazoo from California in 2013 and attend the Western Michigan University School of Medicine to be closer to a fiance.

But, there was no fiance, and as investigators and the media looked deeper into her life, more and more red flags signalling trouble in Patrick's life appeared. Few people appeared to know the true extent of her personal challenges before she left her hospital-issued equipment in a locker after working a shift at Borgess Medical Center and began acting "erratically," according to people who saw her the night of Dec. 5.

First came the discovery of YouTube videos created by Patrick in which she speaks to a mystery lover. It was discovered that a judge granted a personal protection order against Patrick to the Rev. Marvin Sapp, a Grammy-nominated Gospel singer and Grand Rapids pastor who Fuller said at Wednesday's news conference "was nothing more than an innocent victim of a possible stalking" by Patrick.

Then, came discovery of multiple social media accounts in which Patrick wrote about a mystery lover widely assumed to be Sapp. However, her posts to Twitter said repeatedly that Sapp never directly contacted her, and the psychiatry resident worried she was in the midst of "one big psychotic break."

Fuller said Wednesday that there was no way to confirm that she created all of the accounts, but "in the end, there was no indication that anyone other than Teleka Patrick was responsible for her social media."

While initially believed to be headed to visit a family member in Chicago the night she went missing, Fuller said Wednesday that Patrick was actually going to meet an acquaintance in St. Louis. Investigators had not disclosed that, in the event Patrick was voluntarily missing and wanted a place where she thought she could safely resurface away from police and media attention.

Fuller said police initially had trouble locating Patrick's 1997 Lexus after a colleague reported her missing Dec. 6 when she didn't report to work or answer calls to her phone or pager. That pager was found in a coat pocket on Patrick's body, along with $100 in cash and keys to the Lexus that had been left sitting in a ditch only a few hundred feet from the lake.

A barbed-wire fence stands about four-feet tall between where Patrick's car was found on I-94 and Lake Charles, but Fuller said there are numerous areas where the fence is worn down and could easily be bypassed. He said a berm surrounding the lake makes it difficult walk near the water or see the lake at night.

Initial results of an autopsy suggest Patrick's cause of death was an accidental drowning, according to a press release from the Porter County Coroner's Office. That won't be confirmed until results of toxicology tests come back in the coming weeks, Fuller said.

Though the body was decomposed after months below the lake's frozen surface, the coroner was able to positively identify Patrick through a print from her right index finger.

Fuller said that, while investigators may never know Patrick's intentions when she left her car on the side of I-94, he believes she would have continued on to St. Louis had a tire not gone flat. "There are all kinds of possibilities where she was trying to leave that area on her own and went into the lake," the sheriff said.

While Patrick's family had held out hope throughout the search for her, they expressed gratitude Wednesday through a prepared statement: "Teleka's death is not the ending we had hoped for, however, the journey does not end here," it reads in part. "As we mourn Teleka, we must also honor her; honor the life she led, honor her kind spirit and honor her devotion to God and others."

The Western Michigan University School of Medicine also issued a statement: "We are saddened by the news that the body pulled from an Indiana lake on Sunday, April 6 has been identified as Dr. Teleka Patrick, a first-year psychiatry resident at Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine," it reads in part. "We offer our sincerest condolences to the Patrick family. Our thoughts and prayers remain with them during this difficult time."

Alex Mitchell covers county government and taxes for the Kalamazoo Gazette. Email him at amitche5@mlive.com. Follow him on Twitter.